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Published: February 2nd 2010
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Emily's second grade class recently went on a field trip to a local wet market. Wet markets are where you go to buy produce, sometimes fruit, meat, fish, and often other food items like nuts, seeds, flour. The purpose of the trip was for the kids to do the shopping, buy some vegetables for a class stir-fry and transact in local currency with local vendors.
The market is very close to the school and we were able to get there through a normally locked gate our school guards opened for us. It made me appreciate the school's location and the value in a simple walking field trip such as this one.
I was glad to help with the outing because this is my most favorite part of living in China. Seeing the kids speak Mandarin, bargain, get excited about vegetables. It was fantastic. Emily and her gal pal, Rin, were in charge of buying broccoli. The girls each had little yellow note cards that read "one stock of broccoli" written in that perfect teacher handwriting that I could never, even with extreme effort and perhaps a ruler, pull off.
I loved that they had these cards--and carried them
all the way to and from the market--but of course did not need or reference them since they were squealing about broccoli the entire time. "We're the broccoli twins! We're the broccoli sisters". They would occasionally change to Mandarin and practice asking for one broccoli and inquiring about the price. I was not allowed to help. Emily made that very clear. This was her thing. I was just the observing, photographing, silent parent.
The kids bought their required items with their money and then were allowed to spend any change they had. They were each told to bring 10 Yuan ($1.50 USD) but many kids had a lot more money. Rin brought more money and told me she was supposed to do her mom's shopping. It was pretty funny. She had bags and bags of vegetables and fruit. This girl is tiny and she was starting to droop after awhile holding a huge radish, a bunch of potatoes, and more. I kept offering to help, but she was determined to carry her purchases.
The entire second grade was doing this field trip, and we were not the first group to make this trip, so the vendors were ready
for the kids. Everyone was friendly, and while some of the moms were a little over the top in insisting the kids bargain harder and get "better" prices, I just let my two charges have fun and do their own shopping.
While we were waiting for the group to gather for the walk back, many kids bought themselves a steamed bun called a baozi. These are filled with different ingredients. Some are filled with pork, other beef, and other vegetables or bean paste. They only cost 1 Yuan (about 15 cents).
Later that day, the kids made a giant stir-fry in class with all their ingredients. Emily told me it was delicious and she especially liked the broccoli.
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Geeze
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Suzanne, I can't stop smiling after reading today. The kids are having a blast.. May the force be with you!! Hugs,Geeze ps- i luv the bean paste buns!